Charging: tear apart finished basement or use laundry room circuit?

[eleven24]

Considering two options for home charging. Running a splitvolt or equivalent off of my 30a dryer outlet, or a new 50a circuit to the garage. Clearly, the latter would be the best option as I have plenty of room in my panel (I have two 200a panels). Problem is the panel is located on the opposite side of the house, in the basement probably around 100' away. Unfortunately, the joists in the basement are perpendicular to what the cable run would be, so running a circuit to the garage would involve substantial cutting of the drywall ceiling.

The dryer, on the other hand, is in a room where the outlet shares a wall with the garage. If a 50a line would get me roughly 30 mph charge and the 30a dryer line would be around 22 miles per hour, then it seems to me something like a splitvolt unit to share the dryer circuit would be sufficient, and cause less damage to the finished basement. Obviously, also cost far less. I just don't know how well those splitvolt type units work.

Secondarily, I'm thinking I could install a NEMA 15-30 outlet on the wall in the laundry room wired to another 15-30 outlet on the wall in the garage. Find (or make) a male to male 15-30 cord to go from the EV outlet on the splitvolt to the laundry room 15-30 outlet. That would power the garage side 15-30 outlet; but I highly doubt that's code compliant. I just don't know any other way to charge the car using the laundry room's circuit without running an extension cord out of the laundry room door and into the garage. Certainly wouldn't be a good solution appearance wise, but also the garage gets very cold in the winter & having that door open even a little wouldn't be wise.

I'm sure I'm not the only one looking at these two options, or even trying to figure out a more elegant way to get from the laundry room to the garage.

Any suggestions?

 

[jcanoe]

When faced with a 70 foot distance from the service panel (200A) to the garage located on the opposite side of the house my electrician was able to run 6/3 metal clad wire up to the attic, over and into the garage. This is for a NEMA 14-50 receptacle. The electrician had many years of experience, knew he could fish the wire from the basement panel location up to the attic by following the plumbing stack. The work was done mid-October when midday the temperature in the attic was not too warm.

 

[Fourdoor]

You would probably be fine with the 24 amp charging (30 amp dryer ckt) and that would be cheapest. I agree with jcanoe about taking the wires all the way up and across rather than destroying your finished basement ceiling. If you go that path, I would go whole hog and do a 60 amp ckt with the appropriate wire gauge and do the Tesla wall connector or equivalent.

Keith

 

[Rocky_H]

Secondarily, I'm thinking I could install a NEMA 15-30 outlet on the wall in the laundry room wired to another 15-30 outlet on the wall in the garage.

You probably mean 14-30. I don't think there is a 15-30.

Find (or make) a male to male 15-30 cord to go from the EV outlet on the splitvolt to the laundry room 15-30 outlet. That would power the garage side 15-30 outlet; but I highly doubt that's code compliant. I just don't know any other way to charge the car using the laundry room's circuit without running an extension cord out of the laundry room door and into the garage.

Yeah, not really code compliant or wise. The main code issue to deal with is that it can't be shared. It says that any outlet being installed for the purpose of EV charging must be the single dedicated outlet on that branch circuit.

Now there is a way that some people have dealt with this to comply with code. You can put a junction box near the end of that line, which has an A/B toggle throw switch in it, and then the two outputs go in a Y split to an outlet in the laundry room and the other in the garage side of the wall. That satisfies the "dedicated" condition, since only one outlet can be connected at a time. So that could be a fairly simple and cheaper electrician job to get the outlet where you want it.

 

[AbeTes]

@eleven24 what did you end up doing? I’m faced with the same exact situation as you were in. Putting the split volt in the laundry room and passing the mobile charger cable under the laundry room door to plug it seems to be the easier way to go but I don’t wanna risk it or violate code. I’m in Ft Washington, MD.

 

[jeremymc7]

Switched my dryer for a gas one. Gas is cheaper than electric as well.

Then used the dryer plug to charge the car.

Cheap, easy, safe and functional.

 

[AbeTes]

Switched my dryer for a gas one. Gas is cheaper than electric as well.

Then used the dryer plug to charge the car.

Cheap, easy, safe and functional.

Great. Did you move the outlet to the garage or running the cable under the laundry room door?

 

[jeremymc7]

Great. Did you move the outlet to the garage or running the cable under the laundry room door?

The laundry is actually in my garage. However, it’s a very large garage. I got an industrial extension cable to get the power form the outlet over to the car. Normally they’re like $150+ but I got it $50. Some here will say that you should never use an extension. Others have no problem f you do it correctly. And I understand their concerns; especially if you use a Home Depot cable. But I used a cable designed for RV / EV use and it’s quite over designed / built.